Region:
Central African States
Epidemiological Status:

Compromised, often deliberately. Chronic local outbreaks. Only sporadic quarantines in effect.

Threat Potential:

Very high

Governing Authority:

Statewide Vendetta Theocracies, local anarchy and racial feudalism.

Population:

Est. 120 million, falling. <1% retrofitted against ßehemoth.

Development:

Mainly subsistence-scavenger and feudal agriculture, under strict supervision of a technologically-current elite.

Production/Resources:

Generating capacity mainly passive solar and hydroelectic (the latter increasingly unreliable with the depletion of the Congo); residual fossil fuels undergoing a minor rennaissance. Industrial photosynthesis and forced-land agriculture responsible for the majority of food production; food imports have ended with the global quarantines. Formerly exporters of agricultural products and natural resources; presently isolationist. Available water frequently infested with parasites. Although recent events have further reduced the resources available to this long-impoverished region, per-capita shortages are mitigated by the fact that the population of this region was already at historically low levels due to the sex plagues of the early 21rst century.

Comments:

The Central African states—long a hotbed of tribalism, racial conflict, and internecine warfare—have achieved an unprecedented level of political unity during the advent of the present crisis. Many of these so-called "M&M" regimes have adopted the vengeance myth of the "Meltdown Madonna", a victimised female avenger who inflicted ßehemoth upon the world as punishment for the sins of western civilization. The spread of this meme is unsurprizing in light of the skewed sex ratio (71% female) throughout central and northern Africa, and western indifference during a series of sexually-transmitted pandemics that reduced Africa's population by nearly 50%. While moderate adherents to M&M philosophy are content to take emotional satisfaction from ßehemoth's impact, more extreme factions work to actively spread the microbe into uncontaminated areas (including, in some cases, their own). States in this region generally refuse to adopt CSIRA protocols or to cooperate formally with CSIRA in any way. With the exception of the North American hot zone, this is the most dangerous region on the planet.